"We bought them to expand our business. We are a very strong mortgage lender," he said.

Newtown Savings Bank has more than $650 million in assets and last year issued more than 2,000 mortgage loans, totaling $371 million.

"This will enable us to expand that even further. They have six brokers that we can put to work in our market area where we only had one," Martocci said.

Sirianni Mortgage did about $80 million in mortgage loans last year.
Tom Lutz
, the company's longtime president, said the acquisition allows it for the first time to offer Connecticut customers a relationship with a local bank.

"We could never offer a local banking relationship where you knew your mortgage was going to be kept, where you could walk in and do your checking and your savings, you could also make your mortgage payments - we could never offer that before," Lutz said.

Little will change for people who do business with Sirianni Mortgage. The corporation keeps its name and office on Federal Road in Danbury and does not lose any employees. It is now a subsidiary of Newtown Savings Bank, effective Feb. 29, when the bank purchased the mortgage company for $200,000.

Martocci said the acquisition, the first of its kind for the bank, helps Newtown Savings reach a wider variety of people trying to buy houses.

In addition to acquiring the mortgage company, Newtown Savings Bank recently received permission to redesign its headquarters on Main Street in the heart of Newtown's historic district.

The bank building will be expanded and a 16,000-square-foot office building will be built as well. The bank has branches in Danbury, Bethel, Southbury, Woodbury, Monroe and Trumbull.

"One of the biggest markets for housing is here," Martocci said. "It's in this area - Danbury, Newtown, Southbury and New Milford are probably the biggest housing markets around. What we're trying to do is to keep the momentum going, which, in our view, this will do."